WASHINGTON – President Trump has remained deeply unpopular in California after his first 100 days in office, with conservatives and liberals alike making the US courts effective as checks on his power.
Overall, a poll conducted in the last week of April found that 68% of registered voters in California acknowledge the president’s performance in their job, and think the country is on the wrong track.
Republicans in California make up about a quarter of registered voters and continue to support the president’s policies. However, 65% of registered voters in the state believe Trump’s actions “exceeded constitutional authority as president,” including 24% of Republicans and 63% of independents.
Looking forward to it, voters said they lacked confidence that the US judicial system will serve as a check on Trump as a restraint that “he should step over constitutional authorities.”
Only 51% of voters who identified themselves as strong conservatives and 53% of registered Republicans said they were confident in their attorney general’s ability to check on the president. And only 27% of Republicans said they were very confident.
Since Trump took office, officials in his administration have launched a series of attacks on the district court judges who controlled them, slowly yelling several court decisions, even if they explicitly rebelled.
Polls have found up to this point that 27% of voters believe Trump is operating within his constitutional authority, while 65% do not.
“That’s an interesting number because you think the public is standing behind the judicial system,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS poll. “Trump is really pushing the boundaries and testing the system.”
Trump’s support is consistently low
Of all registered voters, 61% said they consider Trump’s second term worse than his first term. Only 33% of respondents say the changes Trump is making to the federal government will have a positive impact on California.
“Historically, the numbers speak for themselves. They’re very low, over 2-1, disapproving Trump in the first 100 days,” DiCamilo said.
These figures are consistent across demographics, with 68% of white voters, 64% of Latino voters, 79% of black voters, and 71% of Asian Americans and Pacific Island voters in the state who are unhappy with the presidential performance.
Trump faced similarly low approval numbers among California voters throughout his first term, reaching the lowest point during the summer of 2020, when 71% of registered voters in the state approved his job performance. At the time, only 29% were approved by the president’s records.
Very few people lack Biden
Despite Trump’s historic disapproval across the state, Californians still look back at President Biden’s term in mixed sentiment, polls found.
Asked to look back at Biden’s legacy, 31% of registered voters said he will be remembered as the average president. Only 23% said he was above average or one of the best of the president, while 43% were below average, if not the worst.
This is because 63.5% of voters voted for Biden in 2020, and 58.5% of state cast voted for him and California Native American Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in the 2024 election.
“Biden numbers are more negative than positive,” DiCamilo said. “Even when you look at Democrats, they’re not overwhelming at the view that he did a higher than average job.”
“It’s a very mediocre set of numbers,” he added. “It’s not a rumbling support as they look back at their Biden days.”
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